/r/CCNA has a lot of good info on CCENT, CCNA Route and Switch, and CCNA Security.

Are you pursuing Cisco certs? If so, I have several books you can have if so.

Yeah. It is in focus. First A+ then Ccent, CCNA networking and security, . . . . I am pretty good with 901 knowledge as of now. Going to drop the hammer this summer with all of it. Take test August, then Ccent and so on. This gives moi the option of getting out of teaching for more $ or adding the certs to license for a CTE endorsement. Meaning, I could also be a tech teacher.

You going to the later Mass tomorrow? I can bring my Cisco books to you. The CCNA one is for previous version (I might have another but I need to find it -- cannot recall if I loaned it to someone), but most of the meat and potatoes are the same. They've simply dropped certain things and added others. You can find the updated info very easily.

I'll be glad to assist with other resources, what to focus on, stay away from, etc.

You'll want to set up PacketTracer (free).

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"And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?" - St. Maximilian Kolbe

Providence is a present mystery by which our hope is confirmed and our faith solidified, if we give not into despair or disbelief.

Is network security something that could possibly be self taught and get a job in (like programming can be) or no?

Depends on what you mean by the term Network Security. Are you meaning something in the realm of merely hardening devices (port security, dot1x, ACLs, firewall modification, etc.), like a network or boundary protection team might do/use? Or do you mean something more like ArcSight, Snort, Nessus, etc. which are more likely to be used by a Security team?

If the former, yes. However, unless you already have experience in it from your days in the Navy you will not be likely to start out doing that actual work. You'd either have to start as a Jr. Network analyst/engineer (depending on the position title at the company) or maybe even lower (desktop support or even service desk). It really depends on the company. Part of the problem once you get into stuff like CCNA Security is it uses software which is not able to be used in PacketTracer -- stuff like ACS, ASDM on the ASA, etc. You can access those images through Cisco's learning platform, but it's not free or even particularly cheap. There is an alternative: Juniper. They don't have quite the marketshare of Cisco but they do have a marketshare. They're also kicking Cisco's butt in certain spheres. They make available their images for free, as they want people to learn their stuff and thus increase the value of their brand to the market. I believe Palo Alto's images are also available for GNS3. Cisco images for GNS3 are hard to come by legally. But you could focus on Juniper certs. The concepts are pretty much the same, just the syntax and phrasing of the commands differ. Build up a cool home lab in GNS3 w/ Juniper and you could definitely do some cool self-training. Add in some VMs of Kali Linux, basic Windows and a few others and you could practice both networking and CEH pentesting concepts.

I just did a search on eurojobs.com for both "Juniper" (85 results) and "Cisco" (87 results) and "CCNA" (22 results). So the job market for either isn't awful. You can play around with the free Cisco emulators enough to get by on the majority of that sort of work.

As for the latter, that will be harder. Those sorts of tools are often pay to play or at least pay to access features. I'm sure if you dig around you can find ways to at least get a handle on the software. It's not yet my field -- I'm still putting in my time w/ the network-specific side of the house. The other problem is those tools need something to scan. In other words, you need to know how to set up a network at an appreciable level for them to be of actual use for studying.

Keep in mind, all information is truly self-taught and I'd classify your use of self-taught more as self-driven. The difference is your resource(s) for gaining the knowledge. For many people, that involves actual classes, instructors, boot camps (condensed classes -- best for people with familiarity who just need a crash course refresh), etc. Some are able to cobble it together on their own. Sometimes self-driven is not the way to go due to lack of access to the product itself -- often provided as part of the tuition for classes and boot camps. Most instructors merely facilitate a guided tour of a book, or otherwise rip off a book for their class material. With YouTube, Reddit, etc., there's no real need for an instructor these days imo.

For CCENT/CCNA R&S/CCNA Sec, the best single test prep resource I've found is Boson. Boson has net sims and labs for CCENT and CCNA as well as test engines which are very accurate and comprehensive. For CCNA Sec they have a test sim, which is fairly on point and includes sims needed for the current version. Caveat: CCNA Sec is very broad AND deep in its questions (some are very simple, but others require a knowledge level CCENT and CCNA R&S did not) and requires multiple resources. As one CCNP level engineer at work put it, "I'd rather take CCNP all over again than ever take CCNA Sec again". It's a rough one.

I haven't touched A+, Net+, or Sec+ in 3 years. They all renewed due to Linux+ and CCNA Sec. I'm unsure of the best way to go for those.

I wouldn't recommend Net+ if one intends to go for Cisco. That knowledge is covered in CCENT. A+ would help w/ getting an entry level job, at least in the US. Unsure about EU or CAN. Linux+ was rough, mainly because it was so pedantic and largely full of useless info. I'd focus more on RedHat certification for anything Linux specific. It's actually recognized as needed in that world.

« Last Edit: May 19, 2018, 06:18:59 PM by Gardener »

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"And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?" - St. Maximilian Kolbe

Providence is a present mystery by which our hope is confirmed and our faith solidified, if we give not into despair or disbelief.

Thank you for answering my question on whether to do Net+ then Ccent, CCNA, . . . . I will do CCent and CCNA kn my own, but afterwards, prolly a CC or bootcamp. Is 'NA security really that hard, though?

I am seeing entry jobs for CCNA listed starting around 65000k. Is that accurate?

Thank you for answering my question on whether to do Net+ then Ccent, CCNA, . . . . I will do CCent and CCNA kn my own, but afterwards, prolly a CC or bootcamp. Is 'NA security really that hard, though?

I am seeing entry jobs for CCNA listed starting around 65000k. Is that accurate?

CCNA Sec is hard for some and not as bad for others. The folks I know who don't think it's awful already have a lot of experience or were very "Rain man" about their studies (and had some experience). What they did was pull a bunch of CCNP Switch concept down after their question pool got dumped and they had to redesign the test. Another thing that makes it hard is one really should lab in order to solidify concepts. But in order to do that, one needs access to an ASA w/ ASDM. I didn't have *good* access to one, so I had to cover those concepts with a variety of resources via focused research (e.g., NAT on ASA: output interpretation, etc.)

In the course chatter for WGU, it's rare for folks to pass it 1st time. I passed on the 2nd time, barely. Some go 3, 4, or even 5 attempts.

I think if you approach it like learning a language, you will be fine with the right resources. I am more of a hands-on person with this sort of stuff. Even if I "understand" I want to see it to solidify my understanding or expose misunderstanding.

CCNA level salary -- depends on location, how much they value experience, etc. That's definitely right (or low) for .gov/.mil support. Ideal in this town would be to find something where you could get a Secret clearance or even TS. Some places will let you work there with an interim clearance until the full one comes through. Stay away from DHS if you can -- their pay is as good as my opinion of their constitutionality. Had a recruiter contact me for a network engineer position with them and he said the salary was 45k. I laughed out loud.

I'd say realistically, coming in with no experience, you'd be looking at 50-55k, but I could be wrong. After a year or two, you could easily see a jump putting you anywhere from $65k to $85k depending on the position, how you do in the interview, etc. It just goes up from there an caps around $120k until you've been at it for 10 years or more. The Security guys get paid big money. Peterson AFB positions seem to pay less than Schriever AFB -- primarily because people don't want to work at "Falcontraz" (as Colonel V. put it). Carson pay varies. I do not recommend working at CMAFS. It's a dungeon, and in the event of a strike is a tomb. Primary key is finding a company which will get you a clearance.

If you are definitely looking for a career change, I'd start assisting your IT folk(s) at the school to build up a resume on that sort of work. Hobbyists are not as desirable as someone who has done it in a production environment. If you can get that sort of work added as a secondary duty, you'll be better off and won't look like you're totally green to it.

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"And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?" - St. Maximilian Kolbe

Providence is a present mystery by which our hope is confirmed and our faith solidified, if we give not into despair or disbelief.